Officer, Surgeon...Gentleman!

“It’s not that I’m a virgin.” For instance, that was one of those things she really shouldn’t have said out loud. She really hadn’t needed to divulge that tidbit. “But a woman doesn’t want to think she doesn’t have enough experience to satisfy her man either.”

“Are you calling me your man?” he asked slowly.

Heat burned her face, but to deny his question would be foolish. They’d slept together the night before. Literally slept together. Today they’d held hands, indulged in conversation and prolonged foreplay through long looks that revealed too much. Tonight, they’d make love.

“Is that okay?” She squeezed her eyes shut, holding her breath as she waited for his response. Praying he’d say the right thing.

“Yes, Amelia, that’s more than okay.” He lay there a moment then declared, “I’m going to buy a bale of whatever they’re burning. Peace, tranquility, happiness and love.”

“Do what?” Still smiling, Amelia craned her neck to glance at him. He lay with his chin propped up on his hands, watching her. The young woman kneaded his calf muscles.

He smiled at her. “Obviously, whatever we’re breathing has made you mellow since you’re talking out of your head.”

She returned his smile. “Right or wrong, I do know what I’m saying.”

More wrong than right, she knew, but wrong sure did feel right in regard to the man lying a few feet from her.

“I hope so, Amelia. I really hope so.”

After that, they were silent for the remainder of their massages. No matter how wonderful the therapeutic oils and massage, she couldn’t bring herself to completely relax. Not when her mind raced with events to come and not knowing quite how she would d

eal with the aftermath of those events.

Then again, how did one prepare for heartbreak?

And one was coming on as surely as she was a Stockton.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

AMELIA went to her room after she and Cole arrived back at the hotel. Suzie hadn’t been there and it didn’t look as if her bed had been slept in any more than Amelia’s had. The damp towel hanging on the back of the bathroom door said her friend had returned and changed for the evening already, though.

Amelia showered, changed into a strapless dress she’d bought from a shop that afternoon and carefully put on makeup and styled her hair. She’d forgone a bra, her mostly flat chest not requiring much anyway, and slipped on a pair of barely there red silk panties that rested high on her hips.

“You look amazing,” Cole greeted her when she opened her hotel room door following his knock.

“Thanks.” She smiled, running her gaze over him. “You look pretty great yourself.”

He did. At the same shop she’d bought her dress, she’d found a pirate shirt and teased him into buying it. She hadn’t really expected him to wear the swirls of white material, but he was and he looked fabulous. All he was missing was a gold hoop in his ear and a sword. The shirt’s material accentuated the width of his shoulders, the girth of his chest, the narrowness of his waist. Women would be lining up to walk the plank. She’d be at the front of the line.

“Let’s just stay in.”

Cole’s suggestion echoed what was running through her mind. She might have grasped hold of his shirt and tugged him into her room if another hotel room door hadn’t opened. Tracy stepped out into the hallway wearing a dynamite red dress.

“Hey,” she called, immediately spotting them. “You two look great. We missed you today at the MRW tour out to the bird sanctuary and downtown.”

“We decided to check out the city on our own.”

Smiling, Tracy nodded at their clothes. “Looks like you found some good shops.”

“A few.”

Another door opened and Peyton stepped into the hallway, a blonde Amelia didn’t recognize hanging on his arm. He invited them to a nearby bar. “We’re all meeting at eight for drinking, dancing and lots of bad karaoke.”

Cole’s gaze met Amelia’s. She saw longing to say no in his eyes, saw that he really did want to push her back into her hotel room and watch a repeat striptease, that the last thing he wanted was their colleagues as an audience to the emotions bouncing back and forth between them tonight because too much was happening between them for there to be witnesses.

But he said, “Sounds like fun. Are we walking or taking a cab?”

At the bar, Amelia limited herself to one drink, sipping slowly. Tonight, she wanted to be sober, to stay awake, to remember every detail of what happened between her and Cole. She laughed at all the right times, spoke at all the right times, but her mind danced ahead, to what the night would bring, to what making love with Cole would be like.